5 keys to mastery

What if you're practicing wrong? Then you get very good at doing something wrong. If we don't get good instruction, then we don't notice when it's a little out of round. Surrender yourself to your teacher. That's doesn't mean you turn over your life to the teacher - you don't want a guru. You have to keep the autonomy within yourself. You are finally the ultimate authority on your own practice.

George Leonard

Source: Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fullfillment (Plume)

Now here is a key: you want to make it real and present in the realm of your consciousness. You don't say “I'm going to do such and such” - it already has happened. Now, is consciousness real? It exists and it is very powerful. The idea is to have this mesh between your consciousness - your visualization - and the so-called material world.

George Leonard

Source: Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fullfillment (Plume)

There is a human striving for self-transcendence. It's part of what makes us human. With all of our flaws we want to go a little bit further than we've gone before and maybe even further than anyone else has gone before.

George Leonard

Source: Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fullfillment (Plume)

How can I describe the kind of person who is on a path to mastery? First, I don't think it should be so dead serious. I think you should understand the joy of it, the fun of it. Being willing to see just how far you can go is the selfsurpassing quality that we human beings are stuck with. Evolution is a whole long story of mastery. It's being real. It's being human. It's being who we are.

George Leonard

Source: Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fullfillment (Plume)

Now here is a key: you want to make it real and present in the realm of your consciousness. You don't say “I'm going to do such and such” - it already has happened. Now, is consciousness real? It exists and it is very powerful. The idea is to have this mesh between your consciousness - your visualization - and the so-called material world.

George Leonard

Source: Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fullfillment (Plume)